The Phillies could go from doing the sweeping to being swept. After losing the first two games of the series, the Phillies are at risk of being swept by the Mets. A sweep would mean that the Phillies would lose possession of third place.

Kendrick’s last few starts have been incredible. His earned run average is just 0.83 in his last three outings. Kendrick needs to keep that momentum going. He will be opposed by Jon Niese, who seems to have the Phillies number over the course of the last couple seasons.

Your Gameday Beer: Brewery Ommegang Three Philosophers

What better place to brew a beer for a ballgame than Cooperstown, N.Y.? This dark, malty, quadrupel is based on the heavy ales of the Trappist monks of Belgium. Hints of cherry and chocolate accompany a beer that not only tastes good, but will make you feel sophisticated drinking it.. -By Michael

Of course, people have the right to express themselves, and unless people are sick of expressing themselves, we might see some comments on the Rollins deal this afternoon with the usual anti Jimmy people expressing their negativity, or support, from those that remain enamored with him.

But I’m wondering if any Rollins supporters are teetering on as much support based on however long a list of continued shortcomings they see in him.

Wait- do you have to fall to the extreme on one side or the other? Is this like partisan politics where our congress can’t get anything done? Where they threaten to shut down the government every couple months until midnight of the day they have to unless they reach agreement on spending extensions? Where they spend exhaustive hours wasting my tax-paid money to enact laws that can just be extracted as soon as the next presidential election?

Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent there. It’s been a very long day.
Anyway, to reply to your comment-

I am NOT an “anti Jimmy” person. AND I can’t stand it when he does things like today.

Ryne,
By usage of the word “congress” I was referring to the legislative assembly made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It’s a fairly common reference. But honestly I don’t wish to discuss politics here, and shouldn’t have used that example. I was only trying to demonstrate that you could be a fan of a player and still be upset at his actions. That I didn’t have to be a hater just to criticize one play. Jimmy also made a very good hustling base running play earlier in last night’s game.

I still don’t think that allows ANY player to take plays off, not just him. Charlie said it himself, sometimes he see’s the other team’s player do it. For the money they make, they could give full effort full time. That’s my take, and it will never change. But I don’t hate any of them.

lefty i apologize if i came across too hard on ya pal! but just to clear it up congress IS congress and the senate IS the senate. and i know that a lot of people lump them in the phrase “congress” i’m anal when it comes to stuff like that.i should have just let it go. and you’re right this is a sports site not a political site! thank god. there’s enough aggrievation just being a phils fan. lol and by the way, you can use any phrase you want! i as a hockey puck sometimes should just shut up! i was in a bad mood when i replied to you . so again SORRY

ken i’ve always been a rollins fan from the time he came up! he could have been a really special player. he’s been good over the years. but nothing really special. don’t get me wrong he has the talent and the ability that he could’ve been great! but he always selfishly chooses the other path. if he could’ve just tried all these years to play within himself and use his god given talents, the sky would be the limit! and i think you’d agree with that. let me also say that during the time he’s been here there wasn’t any other player from our org. that could’ve replaced him at his position.especially defensively. his offensive numbers have always been good for a SS. but can you imagine the numbers in all the other catagories he could have if he just played within himself and stopped trying to be babe ruth!

that’s where he has drawn all the ire from me! not only is he enamored with trying to hit homeruns but his lack of hustle and focus this year with the team needing him to produce not with power, but all the other aspects of his skills. i could go on and on about his deficiencies as a leadoff hitter but you already know what they are . to me he has earned all the nicknames he’s gotten but everyone .i’m not gonna repeat the one i call him out of respect for another fellow commentor on this site! because he got upset at what the implication was by the name i called him. but in my eyes he’s earned the name because of his lack of hustle and selfishness, and not being a team player.

Who made you a talent evaluator? Did it ever occur to you that Rollins maybe has the talent to be a great defender, a better than average base stealer, and an average bat, and no more? That maybe his career MVP year was just that, a career year and a fluke? None of his other seasons have come close to that one.

I doubt seriously lack of hustle has ever held him back from being a special player. Talent has the most to do with it.

well george being 62 yrs old and watching THOUSANDS of baseball games and playing and coaching games over the years. well i think that i can spot something in a player that stands out! like i said, and it’s simple george. i don’t doubt his talent, never did , he has all the talent you can ask for! his main problem is his stubborness, attitude, and selfishness, and lack of effort, and most of all he’s not a team player! what part of what i said didn’t you understand?
and as far as him being a defender? he’s been great! never doubted that! well he could be a lot better if he gave the effort all the time! but he choses his time. with is wrong! no less than 100% 100% of the time. i’ll say just to be clear to you george that when he does choose to run the way he can, he IS a great base runner! i don’t think his mvp year wqas a fluke at all because he had 3-5 years close to those stats but 07 was a lot better. the diff. in that year was he was so focussed and had great A B’S all year! and he hustled. it was awesome to watch! and there’s no reason why he couldn’t do that or something close most of his career, but he chooses to not do that. as far as his bat in the grand scheme. he has been at the top for his position most of his career. but with his skillset he could’ve been a hall of famer.

and to answer your last paragraph. if you doubt that his lack of hustle has ever held him back? well i could go on and on , but simply if he had utley’s attitude within himself what do you think? and one more thing. it’s hard to be special without hustle if you’re sitting on the bench because of it!

“You want guys to be able to go out and hustle,” first baseman Ryan Howard said. “He knows better. He knows better. It’s simple, be on time, hustle. That’s it. That’s two things that you can control. Go out there and do it. Charlie took care of it.”

On a positive note, Frandsen is killing the ball, sans power, and I know he cannot keep up this torrid pace, but I’d love to see him stay up in the majors: either on the bench, at third, or at second if Utley moves to third. Hell, if he it’s .280, fields well, and isn’t a friend of the DL, then I’ll take it. Plus, he hustles. Lol. ; ) Polanco has always been a good hitter and solid defensively, but I said it way way back that he’d be useless this year. Shame his career has been muddled by injury.

I hope they make Ruf the 40th man. I would love for us to sweep the Braves…for old times sakes.

Finally, KK stinks!!!! I’ll scream it from the rooftops if it makes him pitch like he has been. Go Phils!

Well, it’s easy for Howard to ask people to hustle when he has to run less than 50% of the time he’s up. (51+% of his ABs this year have been a K, BB, or HR)

But either way, I’m sure Jimmy would say he’s supposed to hustle most times too, but on an IF popup that doesn’t even make it past the pitchers mound, well, I don’t much care if you run it out, personally.

eric say what you want about howies % of k’s w’s or hr’s but one thing you never see from ryan howard is lack of hustle! even last year when his achilles went, he knew he was hurt, i don’t know if he knew it was his achilles but the mam blew out his ankle but tried his hardest to continue to run to first before the pain took him down! that made me respect him so much! he was doing that for us and his teamates! what would rollins have done?

Chuck A – a player that plays hard every play all the time… runs into walls… is likely to end up like Chase Utley (on the DL half the season every year). For what it’s worth, Jimmy is dependable… he’s not on the DL because he picks his spots to sort of loaf it and I’m ok with him not hustling a routine ground ball or pop fly but he bears the risk of this happening and I think he has to pick his spots a little better. Unfortunately, when he is caught with his pants down, he suffers the consequences; being benched and getting booed. Like I said, he has to pick his spots a little better and right now, with the team fighting to get back in this thing, everyone wants to see them play hard on every play. That being said, you have to look at the situation from Jimmy’s point of view – Jimmy is probably more frustrated than anyone on this team for the way that this season has gone. Chase and Ryan get a mulligan but Jimmy had to endure this nightmare since day one. Now they’re playing a little better and no one is giving him any credit for coming out and playing every day. Howard can say, “Jimmy has to hustle.” but the reality is that Jimmy can say, “Where were you when this ship was sinking?” At least Jimmy was on the field trying to earn his paycheck… and he might not have been if he was one of those “balls to the walls” kind of guys. He is fourth in the NL in at bats. He’s first in outs made and first in fielding percentage as a shortstop. He goes out there and does his job and most of the time, he goes full throttle. The other 10% of the time, he throttles down because it’s a long season and in order to stay on the field, those moments of loafing help preserve his body over the course of the season. Take that for what it’s worth… I’m a Jimmy fan. It drives me nuts when he gets caught not hustling and he deserves to be benched and criticized… he picked a bad spot to loaf it… but I am not going to say that I expect him to bust his butt on every play because I’d rather him not do that and stay on the field.

that last sentence is the biggest load of shit i’ve ever heard! how can you say that? you don’t expect him to hustle so he doesn’t get hurt so he can stay on the field? listen up chuck, if he ain’t hustling he don’t deserve to be on the field! and how can you say that about howard? not being there. if you’re implying about howards S.O rate that’s off the mark too! he’s striking out cause he’s stupid to swing at some of those pitches not because he’s being lazy!

Well then, I guess it’s a good thing I don’t work for you, Ryne. Thankfully, I’m doing quite well where I’m at and I can make a point without cursing and getting myself all worked up.

Howard not being there… I mean he has literally not been there. As in, he has missed roughly 2/3 of the season spending time on the DL.

Ask Pete Reiser (who was carried off the field 11 times in his career) whether it was worth it to go all out 100% of the time. Actually, you don’t have to – there are taped interviews that attest to his regret for never reaching his potential. He was one of the greatest players that ever played and no one knows his name because his career was cut short because of how hard he played. Smoky Joe Wood, Rusty Staub, Chase Utley… the list goes on and on.

Let me put it to you this way… Jimmy Rollins has a MUCH better chance of making it into the Hall of Fame right now than Chase Utley does. They are the same age, Jimmy has better total numbers in every aspect except HR where he Utley leads Rollins by 12 HR and Rollins has more hardware. Rollins has a higher black ink score, a better grey ink score and he will be able to play until he’s 38, at least. Three years ago, Utley was a shoe-in HOF’er and Rollins was a longshot. Now, unless Utley can find the magical fountain of youth, his chances of playing his way into Cooperstown are slim at best. If Chase had geared it down on one or two routine ground balls per game over the course of six seasons, maybe his knees still have some cartilage. As it stands, he’s going to have to hope that he can find a home in the AL where he can DH because his days as an every day infielder are likely over.

For the record – – – I am a HUGE Jimmy Rollins fan. Always have been and always will be. He deserves to be here, is worth the contract (if you look at WAR) and I hope he finishes his career here. Not only does he have a better chance than Utley to make the HOF (Chase has NO shot) but I actually think he might make the Hall if he plays consistently enough over the next 3-4 years to get to 2,500 hits.

BUT ….. I absolutely HATE it when he “loafs it” and feel that no player should do that. Especially Jimmy. Of all the players on that team he needs to be the one setting the example for the young guys. He’s got the longest tenure. He’s the one that righted this ship in the mid 2000s to make this team a contender.

I hear what you are saying OCP as far as “picking his spots” and “gearing it down.” But not at least running a little harder on pop-ups is inexcusable. And Charlie talked to him about that 2 weeks ago. That made it almost impossible for him to not bench him. Hopefully this is the end of it and Jimmy will spark this team enough over the next month so that they finish strong.

He absolutely had to get benched… he deserves to be criticized… I am not defending him getting thrown out due to lack of hustle. I’m just playing devil’s advocate here by saying that there is another side to wanting a player to play “balls to the wall” all the time. I agree with you that he his gearing down is worse than most – run a little harder, Jim. But I also think that it’s ridiculous for Ryan Howard to call him out because as frustrating as it is for Ryan, it is tenfold worse for Jimmy, at this point. If Rollins had a healthy team around him for an entire season, the Phillies wouldn’t be in the basement. He has had to endure 2/3 of the season without any consistency in the infield… the only guy that has been there all season is Jimmy. He has 202 more plate appearances than the guy on the current roster with the next most plate appearances (Juan Pierre)… talk about frustration. And now you’ve got someone on your team calling you out for not hustling on a bloop fly that wasn’t caught? He has to hustle and he has to set the tone and be an example… he has to grow up and be that guy all the time. They need him now but more importantly, they need him in the future.

I hate to break it to you, but EVERY PLAYER LOAFS at some point or another. They have nearly 700 AB a season, and play the field for 1300+ innings a season. If you find a player that gives max effort at all times under all circumstances you’ve found a robot, not a real person.

In fact, one of these days I’ll sit down during a single game and document each time I see a player giving less than 100% effort and post it here when people bring up this “HE MUST HUSTLE 110% RAH RAH” crap. It will be a long list.